Night Owls series
Night Owls series — by Lauren M. Roy. Genres and Sub-Genres Urban Fantasy Series Description or Overview ✥ Bookstore owner Val wants to forget the monster-hunting life she left behind on the west coast. It ended badly, and she’s quite done with monsters, thankyouverymuch. Until a girl named Elly makes her way to Edgewood with the monsters on her tail, forcing Val to dust off her combat boots and let down her fangs. ~ Author Lauren M. Roy, interview Lead's Species * Ensemble cast: ** Mage Monster Hunter (Elly) ** Slacker Renfield (Chaz) ** Vampire (Val) Primary Supe * Vampires, demons, and Jackals What Sets it Apart * Ensemble cast, fresh take on supes, Jackals as a primary supe. Narrative Type and Narrators * Third person narrative — POVs: Val, Chaz, and Elly, and later, Cavale. Books in Series Night Owls series: # Night Owls (2014) # Grave Matters (2015) Shorts, Novellas, Anthologies and Guides none yet World Building Setting Edgewood, which appears to be on the East Coast within a few hours driving time of Boston. Places: * Night Owls: Val's book store * Crow's Neck: the run-down neighborhood in which Cavale and Elly live; necromancer who is raising the dead * Southy: South Boston—Ivanov's sovereignty Supernatural Elements ✥ Hunter, Jackals, vampires, demons, succubi, magic book, necromancer, dead, ghost, ghoul, , , Glossary: * Jackals, "Creeps": shape-shifting monsters—vicious, bloodthirsty killing machines * Creepscrawl: name Val gives to the written language of the Creeps * Stregoi: Russian vampires—leader: Ivanov. * Ghoul: animated corpse raised by a necromancer; * Necromancer has the ability to re-animate corpses to make Ghouls and control vampires. 'Groups & Organizations': * Brotherhood: ancient cult-like organization that has, for centuries, battled the Creeps and other Monsters in an attempt to eliminate them entirely. They are well-trained Hunters who use a variety of weapons, tools, and magic to defeat the Creeps. They only hunt rogue vamps or demons. World ✥ Roy has created a fresh and inventive world built around some familiar supernatural types, but with the addition of a very non-traditional group. Instead of using a single leading character or even a pair, she begins by giving us four (two women and two men) and then adds a fifth (another man) at the end of book 1. In this world, the supernatural population includes vampires, demons, and Jackals (aka Creeps). The vampires keep a low profile, drinking only donated blood and keeping their true identities hidden from the mortal world. These vamps have supersonic speed and strength, are extremely sensitive to sunlight and holy water, and sleep during the day. The method by which a human is changed into a vampire is much more gory than the traditional process. (It is described in detail in the first novel, so I won't discuss it here.) The demons also live among humans without showing their true natures. In the first novel, we meet a pair of lesbian succubi who live in a lovely suburban home and mind their own business, helping out their vampire friend when necessary. The Creeps/Jackals are the villains of this world because they prey openly on humans, giving the rest of the supernaturals a bad name. The Creeps are carnivorous and are particularly fond of chowing down on virgins of either gender. They also smell really bad ("Blood and rot and crawling things," Night Owls, p. 18) In general, they travel in small groups and live in "nests." They have their own guttural language; use runes as part of their magic; and are extremely sensitive to sun, holy water, rowan wood, and silver. Here, one character explains what is known about them: :"We're not quite certain what the Creeps are, at heart. They take the bodies of their victims, usually after death, but not always. They've been able to turn the living as well, Whether the original personality remains seems to depend on the circumstances of their turning. Some retain pieces of themselves, some don't….We don't know precisely what it is that enters the bodies. Some kind of wraith, perhaps, or lesser demons too weak to have forms of their own. But once it's done, the change is permanent. They'll go around, killing indiscriminately, feasting on flesh and causing a panic." (Night Owls, p. 40) Creeps can make themselves look human or they can go completely animalistic: : "heads completely canine, covered in short black fur, their bodies bulging with muscles and twisted as they lope...on all fours." (Night Owls, p. 214) Generally though, they walk on two feet, but allow their heads to turn into fanged muzzles with furry, pointy ears—all covered up by nondescript hoodies. In Grave Matters, we learn that Creeps can spread their condition either through a bite, although that can frequently result in death rather than transformation. There is also a slower transformation method that involves the Creep eating a piece of the victims heart and then forcing the victim to eat a piece of raw Creep flesh. The main enemy of the Creeps is the Brotherhood, an ancient cult-like organization that has, for centuries, battled the Creeps and other Monsters in an attempt to eliminate them entirely. Lately, the Creeps have not been having much luck turning humans, so with that problem and with the Brotherhood constantly on their trail, their numbers have dropped considerably over the past few decades. Members of the Brotherhood are well-trained Hunters who use a variety of weapons, tools, and magic to defeat the Creeps. In general, the Brotherhood doesn't bother the vamps or the demons unless one of them goes rogue and harms humans. ~ Fang-tastic Protagonists ✥ Elly: She's been through a lot, and she tends to play things close to the vest. Her unusual upbringing means she feels out of place in a lot of social situations, but when it comes to the supernatural she's nearly as confident as Val. ~ The Qwillery: Interview with Lauren M. Roy ✥ Eleanor (Elly) Garrett: She was raised by Father Value, a renegade Brother who was thrown out of the Brotherhood after he tried to use fighting methods that they didn't condone. Elly always thought that she was an orphan, but she learns differently in book 1. She learned all sorts of magical skills during her years with Father Value, and consequently, she is a skilled fighter, both with her weapons and her magic. Elle is 23 years old. — Elly has lost her mentor and also her purpose in life. Father Value raised her to be a survivor, not a savior, but now that she has these new friends, she doesn't think that she can go back to being so cold-hearted. Elly is suppressing deep anger with Cavale over his leaving her behind with Father Value all those years ago. Because of her horrific childhood experiences, Elly has a great deal of trouble relating to people. ~ Fang-tastic ✥ Cavale: He is a powerful warlock, also raised by Father Value and is a few years older than Elly. He walked away from Father Value and Elly when he couldn't stomach Father Value's indifference to sacrificing the lives of innocents if those deaths meant that he could kill more Monsters. Cavale is seemingly content with his new life, but obviously has feelings for Elly. ✥ Valerie (Val) McTeague: A vampire born in the 1940s, she spent much of her life as a Hunter, but left after a battle with a nest of Creeps from which she emerged as the only survivor. Currently, she owns Night Owls, a book store in Edgewood. ✥ Charles (Chaz): He is Val's sardonic, slacker Renfield and is also secretly in love with her. Chaz is not like the original Renfield in Bram Stoker's novel. He is Val's personal assistant, works as the manager of Night Owls, and handles all of her daytime affairs. She does not drink his blood, and he does not want to become a vampire (at least not in book 1). Most of the humor comes in the verbal interaction between Chaz and Val and between Chaz and various book-store patrons and workers. ✥ Sunny and Lia: Lesbian succubi pair who can glamour their appearance at will and generally appear as middle-aged humans. Their demonic appearance is traditionally huge, scaly, and fierce. They own a bakery next door to Night Owls, but they also have day jobs: Sunny as a counselor and Lia as a gym coach at the local college. ✥ Justin: He starts off as a human college student but then becomes something else after his adventures in book 1. Justin has a major crush on Elly. He is a nerdy virgin who gets mixed up in magical affairs that are far beyond his understanding, but by the end of the book, he finds himself on the side of the supernaturals for the long term. In book 2, he's trying to adjust to being a mixed-breed supernatural creature—Jackal (Creep) and vampire. ~ Fang-tastic Book Cover Blurbs ✤ BOOK ONE—Night Owls (2014): Night Owls book store is the one spot on campus open late enough to help out even the most practiced slacker. The employees’ penchant for fighting the evil creatures of the night is just a perk… Valerie McTeague’s business model is simple: provide the students of Edgewood College with a late-night study haven and stay as far away from the underworld conflicts of her vampire brethren as possible. She’s lived that life, and the price she paid was far too high to ever want to return. Elly Garrett hasn’t known any life except that of fighting the supernatural werewolf-like beings known as Creeps or Jackals. But she always had her mentor and foster father by her side—until he gave his life protecting a book that the Creeps desperately want to get their hands on. When the book gets stashed at Night Owls for safe keeping, those Val holds nearest and dearest are put in mortal peril. Now Val and Elly will have to team up, along with a mismatched crew of humans, vampires, and lesbian succubi, to stop the Jackals from getting their claws on the book and unleashing unnamed horrors… ~ Goodreads | Night Owls (Night Owls, #1) by Lauren M. Roy ✤ BOOK TWO—Grave Matters (Feb 24, 2015): Night Owls bookstore always keeps a light on and evil creatures out. But, as Lauren M. Roy's thrilling sequel continues, even its supernatural staff isn’t prepared for the dead to come back to life… Elly grew up training to kill things that go bump in the night, so she’s still getting used to working alongside them. While she’s learned to trust the eclectic group of vampires, Renfields, and succubi at Night Owls bookstore, her new job guarding Boston’s most powerful vampire has her on edge—especially when she realizes something strange is going on with her employer, something even deadlier than usual… Cavale isn’t thrilled that his sister works for vampires, but he’s determined to repair their relationship, and that means trusting her choices—until Elly’s job lands all of the Night Owls in deep trouble with a vengeful necromancer. And even their collective paranormal skills might not be enough to keep them from becoming part of the necromancer’s undead army… ~ Goodreads | Grave Matters (Night Owls, #2) by Lauren M. Roy ✤ BOOK THREE—: Category:Series